The nature of so-called 'parasites' of the skin / by W. Tilbury Fox.

  • Fox, William Tilbury, 1836-1879.
Date:
1864
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The nature of so-called 'parasites' of the skin / by W. Tilbury Fox. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    topathology” in the British and Foreign Medico-Chir- urgical Review, does not deal with the subject in a liberal manner. The arguments contained in it, can- not be fairly said to be a “ total” of pros and cons; indeed, the data which form the basis upon which the vegetable nature of parasites rests, are not refuted— not examined. True, the history of their discovery, their outward resemblances, and their microscopic appearances are discussed; but the arguments deriv- able from analogy, the vital and chemical behaviour of the “ parasites,” the effect of treatment and the like, are not noticed. Mr. Wilson details very clearly and forcibly the mode in which he conceives the para- sitic bodies to be produced by a “ granular degenera- tion” of normal tissues, and refers for corroboration to the instances of the development of mucus and pus” to be noticed presently; but it seems to me that the whole point has been examined by an ana- tomical eye and anatomical ideas, without any refer- ence to the botanical view of the case. “ More than twenty years since,” says Mr. Wilson, “ after a care- ful microscopic investigation of the pathological ele- ments of which they are composed, we came to the conclusion, that they resulted from an aberration of cell-formation ; that this aberration consisted in the growth and proliferation of the primary granules of which epidermic cells and hair-cells are normally constituted; that this growth and proliferation had the effect of arresting the granules at their embryonic stage, and in the performance of their embryonic func- tions, and, as a consequence, that the cell-tissue (epi- dermis and hail-) composed of these embryonic granules and imperfectly elaborated cells, was, upon desiccation by the air, dry, spongy, friable and brittle; that, in trichosis, this change alone existed in the hair and epidermis; whereas, in favus, the granules composing the yellow disk around the mouth of the follicles passed through a pustular stage, the consequence of a higher degree of inflammation, and, in their pustular con- dition, obtained their peculiar yellow colour. We called this morbid alteration of the primary granules of the epidermis and hair-tissue ‘ granular degenera- tion’, and subsequent experience has not altered our opinion.” As regards the mode of increase and production : “ the granules are nucleated, separate or in groups.